Crossroads
by The Sleep-Deprived Writer
Summary: An impasse causes some interesting problems and an unexpected scenario.


"Parker..." Raymond gave a glance to the woman who was in the next room. She was staring at something under a microscope, wearing a full combat uniform with a respirator [that also had a backpack filter, which set off a red alert in Raymond's head that this whole affair was a bad idea], oblivious to what was going on in the hallway. "I really must wonder what is wrong with you."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"She's a bioterrorist, Parker. How does that even work? You work for the BSAA. And now you're trying to protect her from whatever crimes she has committed?"

"You do not have a spotless record, Raymond." Parker glanced away. Raymond did have a point and this was all a giant mess. But Christine was a good friend and he owed it to her not to leave her to get arrested.

"O'Brian knew what I was up to the whole time when we were planning and executing the Veltro Revival. What makes you trust her so much?"

"..." Parker sighed. "Alright, she and I used to be lovers. We broke it off a while back because we barely saw each other because of our schedules and, when we did have time, another researcher watched us like a hawk."

"Parker..." Raymond frowned.

"...Raymond, look... Let's just talk to her. She needs to know what's going on so she can finally be free of this place, if she wants to."

Raymond raised an eyebrow at the older man. "Fine. We need to hurry up, anyway." Raymond glanced at his watch.

Parker knocked on the door. Christine looked up and toward the door, with a slightly confused look on her face. Only slightly, though, as she still had her customary deadpan expression. She made a gesture with her hand and Parker opened the door. He and Raymond walked in, Raymond glancing around at what was in the room.

"Parker... It's been a while, hasn't it?" The woman was looking at both of them. She sounded vaguely bored, her expression neutral. It was a little on the strange side, in Raymond's opinion.

Parker smiled. "It has."

"And you bring a stranger into my lab." She shrugged. "So, what brings you and him here? Here to get married?" Though her expressions were muted, she seemed to be smiling (if the way her cheeks and eyes moved were any indication; her mask covered her mouth and nose).

"No, Christine." Parker grinned again.

Raymond held out his hand. "Raymond Vester."

She shook it. "Christine Yamata. My team called me Four Eyes in the field."

"Isn't 'Four Eyes' used as an insult?"

She shrugged. Her face was rather impassive again. "It's better than that government team that has a woman codenamed Party Girl or a British woman codenamed Tweed back in Raccoon City. I ask again-" She turned to face Parker again. "Why are you here? And why did you bring someone with you?"

"Well... Christine, there's going to be a BSAA raid on this place. Now, I know that your team and you quit dealing with Umbrella back in 1998, but I don't think the leader of the operations is going to believe the 'but they changed, honest' bit." Parker gave her a worried look.

"We are creating vaccines here. It is not my usual sort of work, but it's better than nothing. Why are they planning on such a raid?"

Raymond coughed, his fist covering his mouth. Christine gave Raymond a quizzical look. "What?"

"As it turns out, my employer has some information that says your employer is a dummy company for a group that is using the money from the vaccines to fund certain bioterror activities."

"So, we're warning you now that this will happen, so you can get out of here while you can."

"When is this raid supposed to take place?"

"Sometime next week. They never gave me a specific date or time." She raised her eyebrows. "The BSAA knew I was in a relationship with you a while back and they know that we still keep in touch. My commanding officer figures that I'll do something reckless if I know what's going on."

"You've been known to do that sort of thing," both Raymond and Christine said at the same time. They blinked and looked at each other.

Christine's curiosity was piqued. She looked at Raymond directly. "You say that my organization is a dummy company, right? For who are my workers and I playing a patsy to? And what of your employer? Which group?"

Raymond gave Parker a glance. This questioning, though relevant to their meeting, seemed a bit on the strange side to him, given how they'd jumped back to the main topic so suddenly. Parker nodded slightly. "Your company is associated with at least a few of the rogue workers involved in the whole Tricell debacle during the Kijuju incident in a major way. Those vaccines and other treatments funded a sizable chunk of what had happened and they seemed to have been switched out with Plaga parasite samples before they reached the intended populations, especially the Ndipaya tribe. But the terrorists are either dead or have long-since vanished. It all leads back to this facility and one on the other side of the country."

"Dead? Killed by their own creations like idiots?" Christine had a strange twinkle in her eyes.

"No. It turns out that one of the Original Eleven killed some key witnesses, instead of arresting them. My copy of the report was heavily censored, so I'm not sure what happened or the details. It wasn't O'Brian, because he's been busy working on his fourth novel."

"Chris," Parker said. "The only members of the Original Eleven involved were Jill and him, and Jill wasn't fighting very much, from what she told me. It was to the point that it was kill or be killed, from what that report said, though, so..."

"What organization do you work for?" Christine said. She stared at Raymond, her expression again completely and utterly neutral.

Raymond thought for a moment and opted for being as vague as possible. "The Global Pharmaceutical Consortium." It was technically true. Umbrella (before it died out) was a member, the BSAA was a current member, along with Tricell and The Organization (the latter in an unofficial capacity).

Christine looked at Parker, as if for confirmation of what Raymond had said. He nodded. "Look, I know you two have gone to this trouble, but I can't leave here." She narrowed her eyes at Parker as he opened his mouth. He closed it immediately. "I can't find much work with my credentials and psychological record when seen together."

"Psy-?" Raymond did not like the sound of this. Parker looked neutral; he'd heard this before.

"...Sometimes, I get diagnosed with sociopathy. Other times, it's Asperger's Syndrome instead. The doctors don't know which one it is and the former makes people think that I'm going to gut them and make their skin into lampshades." She said it all in a dry tone, as if she were reporting the weather.

Parker shook his head. "That's not right."

"Well, who would trust someone obsessed with virology, experiments with deadly viruses on a regular basis, and didn't seem to have any qualms being an Umbrella field scientist? They've learned well from Raccoon City and it makes me wonder why you didn't learn your lesson from Terragrigia." She winked at him.

Raymond gave her an impassive look look. "So us coming down here-"

"Completely useless. Even when I do find work, then I have to relocate, and I have grown fond of this place."

A/N:

...Yes, this is a fic involving Raymond, Parker, and Christine Yamata (Four Eyes), about how they could possibly interact. Originally, I was going to have a character another RPer came up with (named Chujitsuna) show up, but I edited this because of reasons so that Chujitsuna wouldn't show up. There's a long story behind the matter of why that would even happen. :|

I'm considering expanding on this fic into a multi-chapter thing, but I also need to work on Alla Fine, so yeah...

As always, constructive criticism is appreciated.

-The Sleep-Deprived Writer


End file.
